


Abandoned

by angelsandbrowncoats



Series: His Most Loyal Subject [3]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Non-Sexual Submission, ed & os get on the same page but they don't know the other is, ed's pov, idk i wanted to do something short, well it's getting more sexual by the moment at this point but i still don't write explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 11:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11896539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsandbrowncoats/pseuds/angelsandbrowncoats
Summary: Ed gets caught up completing a mission for Oswald and ends up forgetting something that should have been important.





	Abandoned

**Author's Note:**

> I know a lot of people are waiting for the bakery!au to update, but I am totally swamped with college prep. I'm moving in on Saturday & I've never moved in my life so... hectic. And I'm really attached to the bakery!au so I don't want to rush the ending. I hope whatever I come up with makes up for the wait.  
> Still, I felt like I hadn't posted in ages, so I decided to make a really short little addition to this series. Initially I planned to make this longer, but while it's a fun dynamic to explore, I'm not quite as invested in it as I am in some of my other ongoing stories. Hopefully I still managed to do it justice.

The house hadn't changed in the ten years since he'd last seen it. Presumably no one had noticed its existence, or else it might have been torn down. But this was a part of the woods no one had bothered clearing of dangerous underbrush, not to build a park nor a parking lot. So the house had remained concealed, half of it too hazardous to use, rotting wood having collapsed under the weight of immeasurable vines.

But the brick base remained strong and steady, and Ed double checked the roof over it to ensure there would be no imminent collapse.

"This phone," he'd told her, handing her a cheap cell that he'd picked up on the way, "contains only my number. I'm safer than Oswald right now, so if anything happens - including a collapse - get out and call me immediately. I can get word to Oswald and he'll send someone for you right away. Or I'll come myself."

"You should," she said, "You are so much more polite than his other friends."

Ed smiled at the compliment.

He showed her the rooms that were safe for use: the kitchen, the parlor, the study, and the drawing room.

"The stairs aren't safe, so none of the bedrooms are either, but when I was staying here, I built a makeshift bed into a little alcove in the drawing room. It should still work just fine," he told her. She smiled and said that it was perfect (he was perfectly aware that it wasn't).

"You must come visit me," she insisted over the tea that she had also insisted on making for him, "I so rarely get visitors anymore."

He promised that he would. Secretly, he wished his own mother had been like her. How different things could have been...

But the past was the past and the present had Oswald, so there was no point in wishing for changes he couldn't make.

It was well past midnight before he left, using long-abandoned paths to help cover his tracks. He hadn't dared drive into the forest; car tracks were infinitely easier to follow and took far more time to fade. By the time he reached his car and started it up, turning on the heating to drive out the chill of his hike, the clock on the dashboard read 3:31. Something in his mind stirred at that, the feeling of forgetfulness that he despised, but it was more important to focus on the road. He needed to return to Oswald. He needed to report to his king.

The sun was already peeking out above the horizon when he parked four blocks down from Oswald's club. He kept his collar up and his hat low, wishing he looked a little less like the incognito symbol as he pretended to window shop at various knick-knack stores that wouldn't be open for another couple of hours. Finally he arrived at the club and slipped inside, praying he hadn't been seen but knowing that looking around would only draw suspicion.

"You're back," Oswald greeted him immediately and Ed bowed his head in deference.

"Is she alright?"

"Yes."

"In a safe location? Galavan won't be able to find her?"

Ed kept his eyes trained on Oswald's black shoes as he answered, "I cannot promise that, but she is in a place that, to my knowledge, only I know. I stayed there for two and a half years without ever once being found."

He felt a bolt of warm, fuzzy _something_ race towards his heart as Oswald reached out to cup his cheek, fingers cool, contrasting with the heat that radiated off him.

"Thank you, Edward. You have done a marvelous job. I shall never be able to thank you enough for spending not one, but _two_ nights just to keep my mother from danger."

"It's my pleasure to follow your command, my lord," he responded. He wasn't sure how he felt about Oswald thanking him. On the one hand, it was praise, and he _loved_ praise. But on the other... he felt safer when Oswald was taking charge: giving orders and _expecting_ them to be followed. Just because Ed wasn't asking for financial compensation didn't mean he should be treated any differently.

"Now, it's early, so I cannot promise my brain to be at its best, but if you have a riddle, you may share it," Oswald stroked his thumb over Ed's cheekbone before stepping back.

Ed perked up at that. Oswald had been the first person to _ask_ for riddles. And he suspected that Oswald didn't really like them, which made the gesture all the more touching.

"I am a maze with no walls, a garden with no gardeners, a cemetery with no tombstones, and a home with no hearth. What am I?"

He could tell by Oswald's expression, which he was finally beginning to be able to read, that Oswald had no idea. He bit his lip, excited at the prospect of _winning_ but disappointed because Oswald had _said_ he would try...

"Is it a brain?"

Ed paused. It was not the right answer, not by a long shot, and yet... oddly fitting.

"No," he said anyway.

"Alright, I am far too tired for this one. What is the answer?"

"A forest," Ed replied, feeling his face split into a wide grin and knowing that he couldn't stop it if he tried.

"A forest..." Oswald mused, brow creased, "That was definitely tricky. Good job."

"I was afraid the 'garden' line would give it away..."

"I can see that. But it makes more sense in retrospect, as do most things," he said, "Now it's been a long night for you. Would you like something to eat before you go? Or a drink to celebrate? I won't be contacting you for a few days unless your life is in direct danger."

Ed froze at that, disappointment seeping through his body as if it had bound to the hemoglobin in his blood cells. He must have made a mistake, what had he -

"My next order for you is simply that you need to rest. You've been up for almost twenty-four hours at this point, without any sort of break between your regular work and your work for me. And it's almost time for you to go back to work at the GCPD again. I want you to get some extra sleep. You're not going to be as efficient if you're sleep deprived, you know."

_Oh._

That was alright then.

"Thank you, Mr. Penguin, sir. I suppose I could use something caffeinated, if you have it?" he asked, not wanting to overstep but knowing that Oswald had asked first.

"Of course. Right this way," Oswald led him over to the back of the club, turning on the coffeemaker as he did so.

Two hours and three cups of coffee later, Ed was heading out the door for work. He knew if he'd tried to snag some sleep in those couple hours he'd only sleep straight through his alarm. Better to push himself until he could crash that night.

"Thank you, again, Mr. Penguin," he said on the way out. Oswald smiled in farewell, "And thank _you_ for all you've done for me."

"It was no problem," he replied, "It's not as if I had any plans - "

And then he froze.

_Oh dear._

_That's_ what he had forgotten.

_Plans._

Because in between all of yesterday's excitement from lying to Lee about the burn on his palm to a mangled body near the riverfront to Oswald's coded message asking for his help to driving Gertrude out to the ancient house where he'd lived after running away from home... Kristen had approached him. He'd been almost too distracted to feel excited at the time, as she nudged him on towards asking her out and then said yes. And he'd completely forgotten for a whole twelve hours...

He cringed at the thought of how mad she would be and waited for the disappointment at a missed opportunity. And waited. And waited some more.

_He-llo,_ a voice by his ear drawled, _what's this? You actually managed to score a date with the girl of your dreams, and you stand her up for... what? A crippled criminal who tolerates you only because you offered him free labor? This is why I'm supposed to be in control. Not him. If you had let me take over, think of what we could have had. Imagine Ms. Kringle, Kristen, laid out beneath us, begging for our touch. All those fine bones and soft curves and warm -_

"Shut up," he hissed, knowing the voice was in his head and doing it anyway, "It's impolite to say things like that."

_Impolite?_ the other him scoffed, _This is why you never get the girl, Eddie. This is why you're all alone. Girls like confidence. Politeness isn't sexy._

"It's not about that - "

_Isn't it? You've been polite your whole life, and still - still - nobody wants you. Nobody likes you. Isn't it time you tried something new? Isn't it time you took what you wanted instead of asking for it?_

"No, that's not - "

_But it hardly matters anymore. You've given it all up for that weird little broken bird. So maybe what I should be asking you is: do you even know what you want?_

And that was the question, wasn't it? If it had been anybody else, Ed would've said that it was obvious. He wanted a kind and pretty wife, a couple of kids, an interesting career, and a nice house. Just like any normal person wanted.

But did he really?

_Of course not, Eddie. If that's what you really wanted, you wouldn't have had that little torture date with your freak buddy. You wouldn't feel so thrilled every time he lets you kneel at his feet. And you certainly wouldn't have branded yourself for him. Just admit it. You're a freak, too._

"No - " But he was, wasn't he?

_And that's why you're not even the slightest bit upset at losing the chance to have dear Kristen. Because deep down, you don't want to have Kristen at all. You want 'Mr. Penguin' to have you._

If disappointment had bonded with his hemoglobin before, this time it was pure, icy fear. Was his other side really suggesting - ? Of course he was. And of course he was right. Ed thought back over their meetings, the endorphin rush every time he bowed or knelt or even so much as said, "My lord." He remembered the warm fuzzy feeling of Oswald's hand on his cheek, his desperate cravings for praise and approval somehow multiplied tenfold at the prospect of actually being fulfilled.

And when Kristen slapped him hard across the face upon his arrival at work, he didn't cry or beg or plead for her forgiveness. He just stood there, thinking. He wasn't mad at her for raising her hand to him, even though it had sent a bolt of terror straight to his spine. He'd promised her a date and then stood her up without even _telling_ her he couldn't make it. She was allowed to be hurt and angry.

But he also thought about how it would feel for Oswald to do the same. If it were in punishment for a mistake, he knew he would allow for that as well. Although he also knew that he _would_ plead for _his_ forgiveness. Yet, it wasn't just in rage that he imagined Oswald striking him... no, he could imagine a similar scene to when he'd burned himself. Pain stemming from hatred, scarred tissue marking another's disgust in him... that he knew. But he was familiar with the concept of pain out of love, pain from someone you trusted, pain that you knew would stop the moment it became too much... and that sort of pain, Ed decided, he was okay with. Wanted, even. Desired. Even imagining the Penguin hurting him _at his request_ , willing to stop at a moment's notice... it sent a thrill like he had never felt before down his spine. An adrenaline rush that felt all too addicting.

But why would the Penguin ever agree?

Ed bit his lip as he paced in his lab. So he wanted to belong to the Penguin, to Oswald, in body, not just in will. He was willing to accept that. But then he must also accept that it was a feeling to be held inside, to be cherished, but never - _never_ \- to be brought to light. Oswald had already done so much in helping to rid him of his other self and making him a stronger person. Unless Oswald asked it of him, Ed would conceal everything. Oswald was far too busy a man to be troubled with one subordinate's stupid crush.

But that's not to say, Ed decided with a grin, that he couldn't act on his love by becoming even _more_ dedicated to the man than before. After all, he no longer had to spend his effort on Ms. Kringle. He could give it all to Oswald Cobblepot...

And damn the man that stood in his way.


End file.
